Sumo East and West (2003)

Directors

Ferne Pearlstein

The story

Sumo East and West tells the story of Wayne Vierra of Kahuku, Hawaii, who arrived in Japan in 1990 at the age of 18 to become a professional sumo wrestler alongside another teenaged Hawaiian, Chad Rowan of Waimanalo. The two became fast friends during the arduous apprenticeship as sumo novices but their paths soon diverged, as Wayne suffered a ruptured pancreas that ended his career and sent him back to Hawaii, while Chad—under the name Akebono—went on to become the first non-Japanese yokozuna (grand champion) in the two thousand-year history of sumo. "Sumo East and West" recounts how Wayne recovered from this crushing turn of events to…

Genres

Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.

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